


Denying A Little

by ChristyRe



Category: Original Work
Genre: August has the talent of a photographic memory, Basing it off the book: A Tangle of Knots, Daddy!Harper, Daddy!Reggie, Don’t want this to be too heavy, F/F, F/M, Harper has the talent of blending in with crowds, Heather has a talent with electronics, Just angsty enough to be good, Kid!August, Landon has an empathic talent via synesthesia, Littles Are Known, Littles are basically asexual, M/M, Mostly just wanna write about my boi healing, Multi, Non-Sexual Age Play, Octonauts is superior, Omega!Heather, Past Child Abuse, Past Sexual Assault, Reggie has the power of super strength, There are other Classifications as well, a/b/o dynamics, baby!James, dom/sub dynamics, everyone has powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:08:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 12,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28727118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChristyRe/pseuds/ChristyRe
Summary: James Landon Fury was the leader of a criminal gang until he was arrested  and tried for murder he was framed for. Harper Winters is the detective set on his case and finds he’s innocent. His agency, with his input, say that he’d make a good detective alongside Harper and use the agency also as a way to monitor the ex-criminal. Now free from the burdens of criminal life, Landon learns that he needs to focus on things he’s learned to ignore with the aid of his unstable life before he falls apart.TL;DR: Ex-criminal baby boi wants a Daddy to take care of him and Harper thinks he’s pretty adorable so they have a non-sexual age play relationship in a world where it’s biologically natural. Won’t really have a plot, I just really like detective shows and NSAP and this is my guilty pleasure. Don’t like, don’t read.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 40





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Kinda, Sorta.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/8136487) by [Katieb18](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katieb18/pseuds/Katieb18). 
  * Inspired by [Classifications](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9502403) by [TheGriefPolice](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheGriefPolice/pseuds/TheGriefPolice). 
  * Inspired by [Hatchling](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2375636) by [SailorChibi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SailorChibi/pseuds/SailorChibi). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn’t how criminal trials work, but I didn’t lie to you when I said that this won’t really have a plot lmao.

“James Landon Fury.”

“Yes, that would be me.” A willowy man huffs in annoyance from his place on the podium. His posture is relaxed while his amber eyes dart around the room; regarding it and the people inside with an unyielding stare that searched deep into their psyche.

“You’ve been accused of first degree murder. The accuser is John Smith who was a former acquaintance of yours. He said that you ordered him to end both Oliver and Wilbur Hollows’ lives with the threat of his own. How do you plead?”

Landon slumps even lower into the podiums seat at the mention of the deaths, but responds with a firm, “Not guilty.”

Harper watches the well-known criminal ring leader from across the room where he and many others watched the infamous trial take place. He glances back at the papers that he was given about Landon months ago, the now familiar glum, pale face of the leaders mug shots making Harper knit his brows in concentration. He’s read over these papers so, so many times and it’s recently been leaving him with more questions than answers as the trial went on.

“You’re known for not killing people when you do your crimes is that correct?” Landon shrugs,

“Obviously.”

“Why is that?” Landon shakes his head, smiling at the situation,

“Didn’t know you wanted my tragic backstory so much.”

“Well, you are an interesting man, Landon.” Landon sighs, now wearing a mischievous smirk,

“Then I’d rather not say. After all, wouldn’t you like to keep the mystery alive?”

The guy doesn’t seem crazy, Harper thought, as he mixed into the crowd, getting closer to the leader, and he certainly doesn’t seem like the type to just needlessly kill. Harper took notes during the rest of the trial, about the trial itself and of Landons’ reactions to certain questions and about the innocent deaths. By the end, it was decided that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict him yet, so another trial was set for a later date. As Harper walks out the the courthouse, he convinces himself that maybe this wasn’t as clear cut as he originally thought. Pulling out his phone, he clicks on a familiar contact,

“Hello, Marshall? I would like to schedule an interrogation.”

Inside of a close-by police station, Landon blinks awake inside a dimly lit cell, groaning when his left hand started to throb again.

“It wasn’t even that cold last night.” He grumbles, rubbing his eyes with his right hand and swinging his legs from underneath the blanket, hissing when his bare feet touched cold tiles. Landon quickly slipped on his shoes, then sat there and got bored immediately. “Ugh, why is pseudo-prison so boring?” Landon perks up when he hears footsteps approaching and the sound of keys in the front of the cell door.

“Landon Fury, the main detective of your case, Dr. Harper Winters, would like to speak with you today.” Landon almost leaps in joy, he finally gets to do something other than sit inside this damn cell! However, he keeps an air of indifference as he does have a reputation to uphold.

“Alright.” The guard puts handcuffs on him and leads Landon to a room at the end of the hallway. Pausing in front of the door, the guard knocks.

“Come in.” A smooth voice from inside called which the guard obeys almost instantaneously; Landon noting that it then must be someone with high respect by the stainless steel smell and the bubbly warmth of adoration coming from the guard. The guard left after opening the door, leaving Landon and this supposed detective alone together. Landon gives the man a good once-over, the mans stormy grey eyes also regarding him with interest before he gestures Landon to the seat on the other side of the dinky table. “Have a seat Landon.” Landon slumps down into the flimsy folding chair, looking around the room for something to do other than socializing. Well, if socializing can be categorized as a monitored by government authority interrogation.

The detective, Harper if he recalls, pulls out a manila file. Upon opening it, Landon found himself staring at the mug shot that he had taken months ago. “I would like to ask you questions regarding your case, Landon. Is that alright with you?” Landon nods knowing that it would probably help in his defense and that he probably didn’t get much say in the first place. Harper nods in approval, “Before I do that,” Harper reaches into a bag beside him and pulls out a thermos. “Would you like something to drink before we start? There’s some coffee inside.” Landon reaches over instinctively with his left to pluck the thermos out of the detectives hand, but flinches back immediately as his left hand cramped up.

“Shit!” Landon grits his teeth and focuses on breathing so the world can sound like something other than white noise. When his left hand subsided to throbbing uncomfortably, he let go of the death grip on it and looks up to find Harper looking at him with pity or concern with the sour smell indicating to either, but one of them being the better half. He hates being pitied.

“Are you alright, Landon?” Landon shrugs it off and straightens his posture, trying his best to look nonchalant after the searing bout of pain. After all, he is supposed to be a leader. A criminal leader to top it all off. He was no baby!

“Yeah.” Harper seems unconvinced and Landon adds on, “Accident. It happened long ago, so it’s fine.” This was where the sour smell of concern would usually fade away; people knew that he was a strong-willed criminal and probably doesn’t even care that his left hand feels like it’s breaking into a million pieces. Well, his friends were concerned, sure, but it wasn’t like he could go to a professional doctor for healing. Curiously enough, the smell still lingered, though not as potent as before, it was still on the tip of Landons’ senses. Landon waves it off as a feeling of pity and shoots Harper an unamused look.

“Interview?” Harper sighs as he thankfully gives up on the subject and pulls out another file.

“There’s something that intrigues me about your case, Landon.” He flips the file open to the face of that damn traitor John, “John Smith accused you of threatening him to murder the two bothers, but that doesn’t line up at all with the rest of our investigations regarding your organization.”

“So you’ve either finally gone off the deep end or he’s framing you and I’m inclined to believe that this man has been framing you this entire time hasn’t he?” Landon laughs,

“Wow you must be fuckin’ crazy or something to believe in that!”

“I do.” Something about his tone makes Landon pause, it’s genuine.

“But why?” Shit, he’s not going to cry, he didn’t need to! “No one else did, so why you?”

“Because I think it’s a fairly simple investigation that’s biased by what the organization has done under the rule of your father. I don’t think this is something you’d do.” Landon huffs,

“I’ve hated that organization from the start, you can all fuckin’ have it if that’s what you want.” He sighs, “John was my boyfriend for five years, but he was toxic as shit no matter how good of a scout he was. So I broke it off.”

“I’m guessing that he didn’t take that too well?”

“He killed two innocent citizens just because I broke up with him. How well do you think he took it?”

“Touché. Well that settles it.” Landon flinched when Harper grasps his cuffed wrists only to be surprised when they fall harmlessly to the sides as the man unlocks them. “You’ll be staying in my house for as long as you can pay for your half of the bills.”

“I’m confused.” Harper smiles kindly at him,

“Don’t be, now let’s have a healer look at that hand of yours.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the closest I can get to the gratification of writing smut that I can post at my age. I’m holding out for my 18th birthday until I post porn lmao. It’s like a reward.


	2. Confusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Landon gets an owchie and Harper talks to him about Classification assignment.

It’s been a month since that fateful day. The second trial went off and declared Landon innocent of the murder and John is sentenced for at least 50 years. It’s a relief but he can’t bring himself to trust Harper. Something about the situation seems a bit too good to be true and Landon can’t shake off the feeling no matter how genuine the man seems.

He works with the detective now, being assigned his partner when nobody else wanted to have a criminal on their team. He snorts and sasses at the man 24/7 so he’s bound to get tired of him soon enough. He’s already getting reprimanded for misdemeanor.

“What would you like for dinner tonight, James?”

“You.” Another thing that Landon doesn’t get is why this man even keeps him around. He never smells like arousal whenever he’s done anything to try and seduce the man, so it can’t be anything sexual. Though Landon himself has never had the desire for sex so it’s more like a test of the other person than what Landon wanted to do. He smiles down at Landon with amusement,

“Now we don’t want for you to be arrested for cannibalism do we? Chicken curry or Phớ are your options.”

“Curry sounds good to me.” Landon sighs, actually pretty hungry after running around all day with Harper collecting evidence and following potential leads. “And I’m hungry so make it fast.” Harper smiles at his sass, starting up the car after they both get in.

“Okay.”

Landon wakes up the next morning and wonders for a moment as to why he feels weird when he falls off the side of the bed and onto the ground with a hard smack. He’s about ready to cry until he hears running towards his door and he sucks it up. It’s not so bad that he needs to cry about it!

“Hey Landon.” Harper helps him sit up, the cream blanket that the man lended him pooling around his legs, “You okay?” Landon nods, rubbing his eyes in a way he hopes doesn’t make it obvious that he was wiping away tears,

“Fell.” Landon blushes at how upset his tone sounded and clears his throat to try again, “I mean, I just fell off the bed. It doesn’t even hurt that bad so don’t worry about it!” He suddenly realizes that he has to go, like really bad.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to do anything about it? At least let me feel for any blood, okay?” Landon swallows, nodding. He could hold out a little bit longer if it meant that Harper would leave so he could actually go. “Good boy.” Landon smiles a bit at the praise, then blushes in realization. Harper also seemed more than a little bit confused,

“Sorry about that. I don’t really know where that came from.” Harper laughs awkwardly. Landon nods, figuring he shouldn’t say anything more about it; but of course he opens his mouth before he fully thought anything out.

“I don’t mind. You could say it again.” Harper’s fingers pause on the back on Landon’s head and he’s suddenly glad that the man can’t see his beet-red face. After a moment of silence, Harper continued the check and finished it up quickly,

“Good boy.” He says, smiling at him like he’d just given him the world again. All Landon could do was mutely nod as Harper left, saying that they’d discuss more about “this” later and that he was going to make breakfast. Landon just hoped he wasn’t in trouble, but the lingering bubbly smell of adoration and the gentle warm smell of contentment tell him otherwise. He pushes those thoughts to the side for now and gets up to use the restroom.

Harper hears Landon flush the toilet from the hallway as he busied himself with flipping pancakes. His mind goes back to what he read in Landon’s file; Neutral it stated. But that’s not what Harper has witnessed at all. He at least believes him to be a Neutral with Little Tendencies.

“What the fucks cookin’?”

“Language.” Harper scolds as he sets down Landon’s serving of pancakes and eggs and flips his own pancake. That’s another thing Harper recalls as Landon scowls, more so pouts, at him; his face brightening up as soon as he took a bite of pancake. Harper feels very parental towards Landon, with himself being labeled a Caregiver, Landon could be messing with his biology of caring for a Little, especially one as distressed as Landon was. If he was one, Harper reminds himself that he couldn’t be sure yet.

“Landon, how do you feel about installing bumper bars on your bed?” The boy, Harper has to stop labeling him, tilts his head in thought before nodding slowly,

“It would help me not fall off the bed, right?” Harper nods,

“Yes, but they’ll be short enough for you to climb over if you ever needed to.” Landon nods, seemingly relieved as he continues back to his pancakes,

“One more thing.” Landon rolls his eyes and sets his fork down to listen as he chews on a bite, “How would you feel about a Classifications Officer coming over later to assess you?” Landon tilts his head in pure confusion at that,

“Waz tha?” He blushes and swallows, “Uh, sorry, what’s that?” Honestly, Harper should’ve known that Landon probably wasn’t actually evaluated by an Officer, his father had probably paid for it to be done.

“Don’t worry about it too much, it’s nothing bad.” Landon eyes him suspiciously as he continues, “They’ll just assess what Classification you fall under and once you’ve been Classified, you’re obligated to follow the rules and laws that come with it.”

“But I already know what my Classification is. Father gave me a wad of cash on my eighteenth birthday and told me to go to this building and ask for a Neutral Classification.” Harper is silent for a moment, trying to find a way to break it to him softly,

“Classification isn’t something that you ask for, James.” James tenses when he calls him by his first name, but stays silent after, knowing him he’d protest if he truly wasn’t comfortable with something. He actually hadn’t meant to say it, but it felt right for the context so Harper continues in his soft tone, “Classification is something you’re born with, James. It’s like how you can’t choose what someone else’s favorite dessert is just because you wanted to. That’s what Classification Officers are for.”

“So I’m not actually Neutral?”

“You might still be, I’m just explaining to you that choosing your Classification isn’t how they’re assigned.” James nods, eyes glistening as Harper realizes he’s close to tears,

“Are they gonna ‘urt me?” James hiccups, a few tears streaming down his face as Harper realizes that he hadn’t specified what exactly the Officers did to judge your Classification. Littles did have wild imaginations after all.

“Shhh, it’s okay.” He wipes up the collection of tears on both eyes and reaches over on instinct to scoop him up into his lap. Bouncing him, Harper goes over the basic outline that Officers were supposed to follow to determine someone’s Classification,

“They’ll ask you some basic questions and do some activities with you to see how you’d respond to them. They’re like games, baby boy. It’s okay.” James cries some more before slowly calming down, “There we go baby. You’ve had a rough start haven’t you?” James nods into his shoulder, sniffling just a little. Harper sighs in frustration as he attempts to wiggles his phone from his pocket, he doesn’t think James is in any shape to go to work today and he needs someone to take care of him.

“Hey Marshall, I have to call in sick today, James isn’t doing too hot. I prefer to call him that now. I’ll be sure to update you on the situation later.” The phone clicks off as Harper spies James attempting to put a couple of his fingers into his mouth to suckle, “Let’s go and get you a pacifier.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Landon has what’s called Shy Bladder Syndrome. It’s basically anxiety over if someone real or imaginary would hear you using the restroom, so your body locks up until the feeling of being heard leaves/the person leaves.


	3. Classification

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James undergoes the Classification test.

James happily sucked away at the pacifier now in his mouth, a pattern of blue whales across it. He shrieks in delight when he sees his Daddy come back. Finally! That seemed to take forever! His Daddy smiles at him as he began placing down toys where he was sitting inside a playpen. Whoa! He looked up at his Daddy, could he play with all of these?!

His Daddy just smiles and nods which James takes as permission and goes for the foam blocks first. He was gonna build the highest tower! He gets to the fourth block before running into issues. He can’t reach! He just shrugs and knocks it over and moves over to the LEGOs. He was having fun connecting them, even though it was a bit tricky.

He pauses when he finds one that was brown. He pulls it up to his face to smell it, is it chocolate? He hasn’t had chocolate in awhile, with that thought he eagerly opens his mouth only to have all the pieces snatched away!

He’s about ready to cry when a similar set of building blocks are placed in front of him, only much bigger in size. He sniffles as his Daddy holds one out to him encouragingly and he reaches out to grab it. He soon finds out that these new blocks are also a lot of fun to play with and much easier to connect and hold!

He’s smashing two pieces together when he’s pulled up from the pen and onto Daddy’s hip. He’s settled onto Daddy’s lap at the table as a strange man takes the chair opposite. James wonders when he got here. He closes his eyes, suckling on his paci as the adults talked boring stuff above him until his shoulder is being shaken by Daddy.

“Hey baby boy,” James bops his nose which his Daddy smiles at, “Could you do us a favor and be Big for a little bit? The Officer will tell you when you don’t have to anymore.” At the word Officer, his Big side is already pushing at him to give over control, but he didn’t wanna! His Big side is mean and says bad words and ignores him! He hadn’t noticed he’d been crying until his Daddy was shushing him, helping him calm down.

“We won’t force you into anything you aren’t comfortable with, James. It’s okay.” James rubs away his tears into his Daddy’s shirt. No! He can be a big boy for Da-Harper! He’s not a baby.

“I’m okay. I no baby.” Landon smiles confidently at his statement. Yeah! He got to choose when he was a baby, which is never! Harper looks at him warily, but allows the Officer to begin asking him questions.

“So, James-“

“It’s Landon.” For some reason the stranger calling him that just gave him an icky feeling. Only Daddy’s allowed to say that, he pouts.

“Oh, my apologies.” The Officer glances at Harper who just shrugs before he continues, “Well my name is Dr. Denver and I’ll help assign your Classification today.” Landon only nods, figuring that it won’t do any good to argue that he already knew he was Neutral. His Daddy already told him that the way he was assigned wasn’t right. The man smiles at him, “Good job.” Landon flushes, apparently he had done something right. He suddenly has the urge to hide into his Daddy...Harper.

“The question portion of the assignment process is the shortest, but it tends to be the most difficult part. So it’s alright if you need to ask for some help on the questions.” Landon pouts, he wouldn’t need help to answer a few questions!

“Alright, so when were you born Landon?” ...So maybe he did need a bit of help.

“Da’ie, when’s my birthday?” Landon couldn’t see, mainly because he was busy shoving his fingers into his mouth since he’d dropped his paci; both the Classifier’s and Harper’s faces lit up in surprise.

He called me Daddy! Harper feels overwhelmingly giddy about this, but then remembers that he didn’t want to scare the baby by making it a big deal. Wait, did he just say he didn’t know when his birthday was? Harper...doesn’t know how to feel about that.

“Um, I believe his birthday’s on February the eleventh. He was born in the year two-thousand.” He looks down at the boy sucking his fingers and was about to get up to get him another pacifier when the Officer places a purple one on the table.

“Brought one just in case this would happen.” Harper nods at him gratefully, gently pulling the fingers from the baby’s mouth and swiftly replacing it with the new pacifier. “Do you think you can answer the rest of the questions for him?” Harper nods.

The adults kept talking about boring stuff while James eyes the play pen. Why couldn’t Daddy put him in there while they talked? A flash of color caught his eyes and he looks up to see the multicolored pinwheel the Officer is holding. It spun in a beautiful rainbow display until it began to slow down.

“Good boy, James.” His Daddy says as he pats his head. He tilts his head in confusion, all he did was look at the pretty colors. But he was happy that his Daddy praised him anyway! He babbles around his paci in a show of appreciation as the Officer rummaged around in his bag.

He looks back onto the table after he was tired of making noise to find two different sized blocks on the table. The small one looked exactly like the chocolate piece from before! His paci drops from his mouth as he reaches out for the piece.

“Oh no you don’t.” His Daddy says, popping the paci back in his mouth and the Officer putting away the piece, again. Daddy’s being a meanie! He pouts with his arms crossed, but still grabs the large block. It’s better than just looking at stuff again.

He stares at the plain foam block in his hands. Maybe there’s something inside? He starts shaking it and finds that it’s actually pretty fun! He giggles to himself as he shook the block around until he had a hard time holding onto it and it fell. He suddenly realized just how sleepy he was.

“Okay baby boy, you’re doing great. Just one more test.” James whined, he didn’t wanna do anymore tests! “I know you don’t want to do anymore, but I promise this’ll be the last one.” He grumbles, but rubs his eyes to stay a little more awake.

“Alright kid, I just want you to say the names of the colors I show you.” James nods, relieved that the last test didn’t take that much focus. He spoke around his paci until the test was done, his eyes already closing.

“We’ll send the results and legal papers to your address by tomorrow.” Harper nods as he bounced a drowsy James in his arms as he went to see the Officer out, “Oh, one last thing.” He hands Harper a chocolate bar, “I know that younger ranged Littles get really upset when we do the test with the blocks, so make sure to give him a little chocolate when he wakes up.” Harper smiles at the gift,

“Thank you for coming by earlier than expected and for the chocolate. I’m sure he’ll enjoy it after his nap.” The Officer smiles one last time at the pair before waving and turning around to get into the company owned vehicle.


	4. Shopping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The pair go shopping for James’ Baby Shower and Harper realizes that babies sleep a lot.

Landon wakes up with his back against something warm and soft. It also seems to be protecting him from falling off the bed. He squirmed a bit after realizing there was an arm slung across him and he wanted to move. His leg was cramping.

“How was your nap?” Harpers voice comes from behind him. He smells soft lavender, still sleepy Landon presumes.

“Leg cramping. Move.” Harper smells of amusement as he moves to sit up on the bed while Landon stretched like a starfish, “Fuck yeah.”

“James....” Harper sighs, the sharp smell of disappointment bursting through the air,

“Sowwy.” He clears his throat, “S-sorry.” Landon smells bubbly adoration again when Harper ruffles his hair and praises him,

“Good boy.” He blushes and is about to hide his face when he’s picked up and carried to the kitchen, “Let’s get you a bottle.” He’s placed back down into the playpen as Harper busies himself in the kitchen. Landon shrugs and lies down inside the pen, deciding to sleep some more before realizing how much his bladder hurt. That’s also when he finally realized he’d been wearing a diaper.

“Daddy?” Grown men don’t use diapers! But it really hurt.... “Da’ie....” He wiggles around in discomfort as tears pooled in his eyes. Now he wants to use the diaper, but he can’t!

“Oh baby, what’s gotten you all worked up?” He feels his Daddy pick him up, beginning to bounce him, “The bottle’s here now, it’s nice and warm.” James opens his mouth to tell him that’s not what this was about before Daddy popped the nipple of the bottle in. His Daddy squeezed the bottle a little and he tasted chocolate milk.

He began actively suckling at the bottle, sniffling a little. He couldn’t exactly remember why he’d been so upset. He sleepily remembers his Daddy pulling out the bottle and replacing it with his paci before swiftly changing him into a new diaper. The rest of the night was a blur, but he remembers feeling happy.

Now he’s sitting in his lap at the table the next morning and they’re both looking at some very boring papers.

“Classification is a Little between the ages of ten months to two years.” His Daddy reads aloud to him, “His Caregiver would need to be patient and nurturing as younger Littles need a guiding hand.” James has realized that his Daddy does a lot of boring things, at least when he’s around.

“Hey baby boy, would you like me to be your Caretaker?” James takes a second to process that, then Landon. He nods slowly, “I don’t want you to say it just because you feel like you have to, alright?”

“Want you! No force, pwomise.” James mumbles the last part into his Daddy’s chest, “Wove you, Daddy. Other two Daddies were meanies, but you’re not!” Citrus giddiness tingles his nose,

“I’m happy that you want me too, baby boy. I’m sad that those other Daddies weren’t nice to a sweet boy like you.” James squirms around with nerves, sucking on his thumb.

“S’okay Da’ie, have you.” Harper pops the caught pacifier back into James’ mouth, he definitely needs to purchase more than a few pacifier clips,

“That’s true. Ah, you sign over here baby.” Harper helps guide his baby’s hand towards where he should sign on the agreement. He notices that James’ signature adorably mimics his. He’s getting it ready to mail when an idea pops up in his mind, “What would you say about hosting a Baby Shower, James? We can invite our friends over to celebrate your Classification.”

“Fwriends don’ talk to me anymore. Say they scawred of powice.” Harper had kinda forgotten about the fact that James had been a criminal. He sounded sad about the fact as well.

“Ah, that’s alright then. You can meet some of Daddy’s friends, okay?”

“Da’iez fwiends?”

“Uh-huh! One of them has a Little of their own that you can play with at the party!”

“Cake?” James asks hopefully,

“Of course, but what kind would you like baby?” His baby blushes and mumbles something, “It’s alright if you’re shy about it, I promise I wouldn’t tease you.” James nods, fidgeting with the handle of his pacifier,

“Wemon?” Harper ruffles his hair affectionately, the paperwork prepared for mailing.

“Sure! I’ll set the date of the party to this Saturday. Sound good to you?”

“‘Kay.”

“Is there anything else you’d like? Streamers, balloons?” James shrugs, averting his gaze. Harper decides to try a different way of learning his baby’s preferences, since asking outright didn’t seem to be doing so well.

“Let’s go shopping for your party supplies!” James grins and nods, attempting to scoot off of his lap until Harper scoops him up again, “Be careful, you don’t have as much balance as when you’re Big.”

“Mm.” James says in acknowledgment, accepting Harpers hands in his to help him toddle over to his room to get some shoes. Harper sets him on the ground with a pair of tennis shoes as he sets about packing a diaper bag to take along with them, “‘one!”Harper looks over to see James had finished pulling on the shoes, “Da’ie tie!” He was done with packing the diaper bag, luckily just on time for James’ request.

“Okay, Daddy will teach you how!” James pouts,

“Want Da’ie tie.” It clicks in Harper’s mind: he’d forgotten how young James was. He was used to August who was around the 4-6 age bracket, always vying for independence.

“Okay, Daddy will tie it for his baby boy. Good job pulling them on!” James beams under the praise, Harper more than willing to express the positive reinforcement. They walk out to the car and Harper cringes at the sight of the boy sitting in the front seat. It’s only temporary, he reminds himself.

His Daddy drives for a bit, not looking at him no matter how hard he tried until they stopped and Daddy pulled on the lever beside him.

“Da’ie? Out?” He pulled on the strap across his chest to further show what he wanted.

“Just a minute, baby. I need to get something from the backseat first.” He pressed a quick kiss on his forehead that made James so happy it was like no time had passed at all when his Daddy was unbuckling him and lifting him up from his seat.

His Daddy carries him through the electric doors, hearing him take a cart. He whimpers when he was lowered into the cart seat. It was cold!

“Co’!” He wriggles around in discomfort until his Daddy wraps a blanket around him.

“Sorry baby, Daddy put it into his bag and it took a little longer than I thought to get it out.” James nods, happily snuggling into the material,

“S’okay.” He giggles when the cart began to move; this is fun! He gasps when something sparkly catches his attention, “Da’ie! Wha tha’?” His Daddy’s leaves the cart for a moment and comes back with a dangly thing.

“It’s a hanging decoration. You can put it up with the streamers at your party! There’s also more shapes if you want to look at them.” James nods furiously, holding his arms out as a sign to pick him up. His Daddy helps him go over to the display with tons of sparkles, carrying him again when they reach it, “Go ahead and choose some, baby.”

There were so many shapes! There were swirls, flowers, and circles! James’ eyes land on a golden, shimmering star. He quickly decides that that ones his favorite, “‘Dat one!” He points so his Daddy knew which one to grab. He bounces excitedly when his Daddy the last one from the shelf and gave it to him.

“You don’t want anymore?” Hmmm...he didn’t want his star to be lonely.

“Siwver fowers, pwease.” His Daddy’s grabs four of those and carries him back to the cart, “‘one?” He was sleepy, that decision took a lot of work!

“Well we need to get streamers, balloons, and some tablecloths.” James nods, rubbing his eyes. He wanted to choose them, “Are you sleepy, baby?”

“Mm-mm!” James shakes his head, “Wanna choose.”

“Tell you what, just tell me what you want and I’ll go and get them for you.”

“‘Kay.” James yawns, but he’s determined to stay awake long enough to talk, “Pink an’ bwu steamers. Burple bawoons. Don’ care after tha’.” His eyes flutter in an attempt to stay awake,

“Go and take a nap, baby. I’ll continue shopping for you.” James smiles dopily at his Daddy before dozing off. His Daddy’s the best.


	5. Preparations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harper wants James to be comfortable with his friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve been working on my sisters succulents and the beginnings of my garden this year. Hopefully they sprout and don’t just mold....

Harper sighs in relief when he sees his baby strapped in a car seat. Unknown to James, he’d taken the opportunity while they were out to shop for some baby supplies for him. Luckily I had that playpen for when I babysit August. The bottles and pacifiers were also August’s, but since he’s usually a higher ranged Little, he doesn’t use them much.

“Da’ie?” Harper smiles at his baby boy,

“Daddy got you a car seat so you’ll be safe when I drive. Is it comfy?” His baby nods, pulling his fingers up towards his mouth until Harper popped the purple pacifier, now attached to a clip, into his mouth, “Daddy’s gonna go and drive now.” He places another kiss to his baby’s forehead before heading up to the front of the car.

When they arrived home the first thing that Harper did was put James into his Daddy’s bed. After slipping off his baby’s shoes, he made a barrier of pillows to keep him safe and a pile of pillows and blankets on the ground just in case he did happen to fall.

He went back outside to the car to begin bringing in his purchases. As he brings in the last of the stuff into the living room he hears his phone ring from where he left it on the kitchen table. He smiles and picks up the phone when he sees the contact name,

“What’s up Heather.”

“Nothing much,” He hears something open from the other side as they answered, “A person at work today brought some of those shitty kind of sugar cookies that crumble when you bite into them, you know the ones I’m talking about. I silently watched them eat it like they were starved.”

“Nothing much happening at the hacking branch?” He hears them sigh,

“No. Regardless of how my week went, you’ve been radio silent for awhile Harper. So while I make a PB&J for myself, tell me about the investigation that you’ve been working on.”

“I really can’t hide anything from you, huh.”

“S’not my fault you’re so predictable.” Heather responds with their mouth full. Harper shrugs, but then remembers they can’t see him,

“Just because it’s true doesn’t mean you have to call me out like that.” Harper states, trying and failing to hide his amusement,

“You like my sass.” Heather states, “I’m also curious as to why you haven’t contacted any of your three friends for over a month. August says he misses his Uncle.” Harper winces, he does feel bad about leaving his friends and Neice in the dark. So, he tells the story as to why he hadn’t been contacting anybody for so long,

“It still doesn’t excuse the fact that I’ve been absent, but you at least have the reason now.” Heather hums in acknowledgement,

“Well I guess it’s also my fault for assuming you didn’t want to be bothered while working on such an infamous case. But I guess your Little is going to keep you in check now.” They tease at the end,

“Im planning on throwing a party for him this Saturday, actually. But would you like me to invite all of you to hang out on Friday? I want him to enjoy himself, but he tends to be really cautious around strangers when I’m not there.” Marshall has read over enough complaints to him about James’ behavior to get the idea that he was the only one he was comfortable around.

“Considering who he is I wouldn’t blame him for having that bias. As for hanging out I’m free on Friday. You should call Reggie and see if he’s free as well. Talk to you soon.” Harper hears his phone beep, telling him that Heather has hung up.

“Time to call Reggie.” Harper mumbles to himself, pressing on his contact,

“Da’ie? I hungy.” Harper looks towards the hallway to see James slowly toddling down with a blanket wrapped around himself,

“Okay baby,” Harper walks over to pick his baby up before he trips over something, “Let’s get you some chicken nuggets and orange juice.”

“Oran’ ju’!” James bounces excitedly at that,

“Baby loves orange juice?” Harper smiles at his giddiness, placing him down onto a newly constructed high chair and snapping the tray in place,

“Wove oran’!” His baby squeals when he’s handed a sippy-cup of juice as Harper hears his phone pick up.

“Harper! How are you?” He hears a splash of water,

“Uncle Harper! I missed you!” August exclaims from the other side, causing Harper to smile,

“I missed you too August.” He hears Reggie laugh,

“You called right in the middle of bath time.”

“Well I just called Heather about a get together on Friday.” He glanced at his baby sipping contently from his cup, “Long story short, I’ve taken on a Little and I want him to be comfortable at his party this Saturday.” August gasps,

“I get to hang out with Uncle for two days?!” Harper is about to answer when August continues, “Papa, can we have a sleepover?”

“I don’t know kid, that’s up to your Uncle to decide.” Harper sighs, Reggie’s making it my decision again,

“I’ll need to ask James about it first August.” He places his baby’s plate of chicken nuggets on the table, “In the meantime, I’ll tell you and your Papa about how all this happened.”

After Harper finished telling his story for the second time, James had finished his lunch and Harper had sat him down at the couch with Octonauts to keep him entertained.

“Just as long as you’re happy Uncle, I don’t care who the Little is.” August states. Harper’s heart warms at the Little’s words, “Also, I remember what I’ve read about him before. He just sounded sad. Even if that doesn’t justify what he did for a living, I do respect that he didn’t kill people.”

“Alright buddy, I know you have a very big brain, but it’s time for you to rest it now.” He hears August gasp in horror,

“No! No nap!” Harper hears Reggie grunt in his effort to wrangle the Little with one arm,

“Just so you know, we’re free on Friday!” And the call goes silent.


	6. Explanations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James remembers some trauma and Harper calms him down.
> 
> TW: Some remembrance of past emotional abuse from James. Just in case you don’t wanna read that part (and just wanna read the comfort afterwards) it’s surrounded by dots for your convenience.

James hears his Daddy come over and feels the couch dip when he sits down next to him,

“You having fun?” He nods,

“Learning lots!” His Daddy smiles at him, patting his head,

“That’s good.” James watches some more before his Daddy speaks up again, “How do you feel about a sleepover, baby?” James cocks his head in thought,

“With your friends?” His anxiousness pushes him out of his headspace a little, “Are you sure they’ll be...alright sleeping with a criminal?”

“They already know who you are James and they’re willing to give you another chance. August seems pretty excited to meet you if he’s suggesting a sleepover right off the bat.” James blushes, someone’s excited to meet him?

“As long as you’re there, I wouldn’t mind....”

“Alright, I trust your decision baby.” He squeaks when he’s picked up and a hand goes to his bottom, “Seems like someone needs a change.” He’s sure his face is bright red, he was probably focusing so much on the cartoon for his condition to take effect,

“S-sorry.” His Daddy places him down onto a changing table, when did he get that?

“There’s nothing to be ashamed about, baby. After all, it’s what baby’s do and I’m here to take care of you, so it’s no burden at all.” How’d his Daddy know that’s what he was thinking? He nods, but is still to embarrassed to look him in the eye during and after the change, “There, all done! What do you wanna do now baby?”

“Pway pen?” His Daddy bounces, soothing him,

“Okay baby. After that is bath time, lunch, and another nap.” He nods into his Daddy’s shoulder. When he’s placed into the pen, he’s about to shove his fingers into his mouth when he remembers he has a pacifier now,

“Paci?” His Daddy reaches towards his chest and pops his purple paci into his mouth,

“It’s attached to a clip now, so don’t worry about losing it.” James nods, crawling over to where a new toy lay. It had some blocks scattered around it with one huge one with holes shaped similar to the blocks, “I was gonna save this as a gift for your Baby Shower, but I figured you’d have fun with toys more suited for your Little age.” His heart warms at the gift,

“Tank’ you.” He picks up a prism block and finds there’s a triangle shaped hole on the big block. He lines up the block on top of the hole and smiles in delight when it fits, sliding inside. He plays around with the block for awhile, paring together a few more such as a cylinder and a circle hole before finishing up the puzzles.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 

He figures he’s done with it for now and places it back down, looking around the pen. He sees plenty of toys to play with, but he just wants something to hug. He whimpers as a memory of his Father resurfaces, shouting at him that he needs to throw away his toys, that he has too much junk.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• 

He feels someone pick him up and shushing him which James cries louder about. His Father was doing a mean thing! They shouldn’t make him shut up about it!

“Baby, I’m here. It’s okay.” James sniffles, letting out a shaky breath, “Are you here with me now, baby boy?” He nods into his Daddy’s shoulder, “Would you like to talk about what happened?” He shakes his head, “Then let’s get you in a bath.”

After his Daddy took off his dirty clothes and paci off to the side, he lowers him down into the bath and began filling it with warm water. When the water is halfway up, he sees his Daddy pick up a pink bottle,

“How much bubbles do you want baby?”

“You can put bubbles in your bath?” James asks in disbelief, when Father let him have a bath for the first time he’d given him some salts to put in that caused him to have a rash. After that he’d been wary of add-ins to when he wanted to take a bath. Bubbles sounded nice though, “Does it have olive extract in it? I’m allergic.”

“Probably the fancier kinds would, but the ones I buy are safe for kids and usually foam up better anyways. I’ll pour in a cup first.” The solution was a dark blue and James watched as it quickly activated with the gushing spout and created a thick layer of bubbles. He notices that there’s a whale attached to the facet,

“What’s this Daddy?” He blushes when he realized what he said, but it had felt right to call him that whether or not he was Big or Little.

“The facet is sharp, so Daddy put that there to protect you from getting owchies.”

“Okay.” Its strange that his Daddy would protect him from such a minor thing, “Is owchie bad?” His Daddy nods solemnly,

“It’s to protect Daddy too. When it wasn’t protected, Daddy got a scar from it.”

“Dadie okay now?” He felt sad that his Daddy had been hurt, if it was to protect Daddy from getting hurt again it makes sense why it was there,

“Yeah, Daddy’s alright now baby.” His Daddy reaches over to turn off the facet, the water up to James’ shoulders, “Here baby, you can play with this while I get you washed up.” He hands James a small yellow platypus, “You fill it up with water and it comes out so you can squirt things.”

He squishes the platypus, finding it has a similar texture as his paci, so he began to stick it into his mouth, “Let’s give you this instead baby.” His Daddy says, taking away the platypus causing him to tear up,

“No Da’ie! Don’t throw!” He sobs, he already loves that platypus!

“Baby, I’m not gonna throw it away, you’re just too Little to play with it without my full attention.” His Daddy explains, confusing James,

“B-but other Dadie say I have too much or that I haven’t been good enough to deserve them anymore.” His Father always showed regret afterwards, but it wasn’t the same as an apology.

“I’ll never even threaten to throw your toys away baby. I got them to make you happy.” He feels his Daddy wipe away his tears, “You’ll never be considered not good enough to own them, not even when you’re upset. Whenever there’s conflict I try to talk it out as a first resort. Second resort is placing you in the Reflection Nook until you’re ready to talk.” James sniffles, processing what his Daddy has said,

“Thas it?” He looks at his Daddy who nods,

“I know that your other Daddy’s may have disciplined you differently, but I’m sure that deep down you didn’t think they were very nice ways.” He nods, but needing to ask for clarity,

“No hitting or shouting?” It sounded too good to be true,

“I definitely won’t hit you baby and I’ll do my best to not raise my voice unnecessarily around you. I am still human after all and I still make mistakes, but I’ll never make it an excuse for anything I’ve done to hurt others.” James nods, tears slowing down, smiling when his Daddy hands him a rubber duck,

“Wove you Da’ie.” His Daddy smiles, placing a kiss on his forehead,

“Love you too baby.” And that was all James needed to hear.


	7. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harper’s friends come over to meet James. James gets to experience how it feels to be deep in his Little Space rather than switching back and forth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter didn’t turn out quite as I expected, but I’m posting it and moving onto the things I’m more excited about.

The next morning, Harper is spooning oatmeal with bananas into James’ mouth when the doorbell rings,

“Coming!” He shouts towards the door, unlocking the tray to James’ high chair and unbuckling the boy, “Up you go baby, time to meet someone. We’ll continue with breakfast afterwards.” He needs to keep a closer eye on James since he’s been deep in Little Space since last night,

“Harper, I have some bags out here and I held them weird!” He opens the door at that and Heather scurries in, heaving a sigh when they place a wrapped present onto the dinner table, “Thanks for responding so fast. The present was slipping.” He bounces James who babbles in delight,

“Look baby, that’s Cousin Heather.” Heather smiles at him. The only way James was giving attention to the situation was when he reached towards their earrings, “Ah, baby we don’t touch without permission.” Harper tells him gently, Heather giggling fondly at the domestic display,

“Aww, he’s so cute! It seems he likes sparkly things too; something we can bond over.” Harper nods, situating James in his lap to continue feeding him while they talked,

“That’s a pretty big gift box.”

“Yes, I hope that the baby would enjoy opening it.” He finished feeding James his oatmeal and he puts the bowl in the sink to soak,

“I’ll help you unpack into your guest room Heather.” He feels James bounce against him,

“Hewp!” He states, causing Harper to smile at the cuteness,

“You can help too James.” They set him to the task of unzipping Heathers’ duffel bag and handing them things to put away,

“Ooh!” Harper hears James gasp, pulling out a sheer teal skirt that was ruffled at the end,

“Would you like to try it on? I’ll take care of the rest of my stuff while your Daddy helps you with it.” James nods and makes grabby hands towards Harper to pick him up. A moment later, Harper has James wearing the skirt over his white onesie,

“You look very pretty baby.” James blushes at the compliment, shrugging as a reply,

“‘Kirt pretty....” He swishes around the skirt a little more before slipping it off with Harper’s help and returning it to Heather to put away. Then Harper hears the doorbell ring again,

“Uncle! We’ve got presents!” Harper puts James on his hip and goes to answer the door,

“Hi Harper!” August stares at James who was busying himself with his pacifier, “August will help with the presents while I go and set up our room.” He ruffles August’s hair and goes to the second guest room,

“Hi baby.” August says softly, reaching out to touch him and ending up patting his head, “I’m excited to play with you!” Harper smiles, accepting the two gifts that his nephew holds out to him and placing them on the table, “Can I play with him right now?” August asks hopefully,

“Alright, just be gentle with James.” He walks over to the prepared play pen and places the baby in and then lifts an expectant August in as well, “Have fun you two.” He says, placing a kiss to both their foreheads before walking away,

“Wanna play castles and dragons?” James tilts his head,

“Ragons?” August nods, grinning,

“Yeah! We build a town and then smash it all up with dragons!” James seems confused by what he’s said rather than excited like he’d expected,

“Bwoks?” August shrugs, not interested in playing the previous game if James wasn’t going to understand,

“Sure! We can just build a village. Or anything really. What do you wanna build?” James crawls towards the LEGO Duplo’s, August then notices that no regular LEGO’s were in the pen. James must of tried to eat one then.

August frowns, remembering when he’d tried to put one in his mouth and they’d refused to let him play with them on his own for a whole month! August is snapped out of his thoughts when James hiccuped, scaring himself as his eyes filled with tears,

“Baby James, it’s okay!” August finds his baba hanging by a clip which he pulls up and nudges against James’ lips, “Look James! Baba!” He’s relieved that James just sniffles and accepts the nipple into his mouth, quieting afterwards. August then spots a big puzzle block in the corner,

“Wanna play with this Baby James?” He grins when James babbles excitedly at the sight of the toy, hurriedly scooting closer to him. They play with the block for awhile, August having to push James’ baba back into his mouth multiple times because James was silly and kept trying to put stuff into his mouth.

“You two having fun?” August smiles, his Papa!

“Mhm! Jamie has this cool puzzle cube and we’ve been playing with it.” He looks over to Jamie, enjoying the new nickname he came up with for his new playmate. The both of them rub their eyes, yawning,

“Looks like Jamie has tired you out.” August pouts, he knows what his Papa is gonna say next,

“How about we all eat something then watch some cartoons? I heard that little Jamie likes Octonauts!” August grins, nodding. This was so much better than nap time! To his surprise, Jamie began whining,

“Sweep.” Uncle Harper came over at that, holding a bottle and picking up Jamie,

“Yeah, this is usually when he takes a nap.” He pops Jamie’s baba back into his mouth and whispers to him, “C’mon baby let’s get you in your newly built crib.” Jamie snuffles contently into Uncle Harper’s shoulder as Papa lifts him up and onto Uncle’s couch,

“Alright kid, wanna watch some toons?” August hesitated for only a moment before agreeing, his Uncle would join them after putting Jamie down for a nap. And he hopes Uncle wouldn’t force him into one either!

“What does August like to watch?” Cousin Heather asks from where they were lounging across the couch. August was confused for a moment, why doesn’t Cousin Heather remember? He then recalls that not everyone had picture perfect memory like he had so he lets the question go, the answer found.

“Lately he’s been into Adventure Time.” August nods his head, settling between Cousin Heather’s legs and his Papa’s lap. Suddenly, he’s given a memory that bothers him immediately,

“Papa?” His Papa hummed as way of acknowledgement, “How come Jamie didn’t understand what I’d meant by castles and dragons?”

“You explained the game to him?” August nods, “Well, it could be because Jamie is much younger than you are. Uncle Harper told me while we were building the crib that the oldest baby Jamie could be was two.” August nods, understanding much more now,

“I could still play castles and dragons with him though?” He still wants to play one of his favorite games with Jamie. His Papa smiles at him,

“Maybe we can find a way to do the game where Jamie would understand.” August smiles at that,

“Okay Papa!”


	8. Sleepy Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James gains some new friends.
> 
> TW: Mention of past sexual assault. If you would like to avoid that part, it is highlighted via dotted lines.

The night has come quick, the excitement of having others in the home making the hours pass by like seconds. Harper and Reggie lead a sleepy James and an energetic August to the bathroom for a bath.

Harper laughs along with Reggie from the side of the tub as August splashed into the water in excitement. He notices that James was lingering by the doorframe,

“Hey baby boy. How are you feeling?” He scoops his baby up, his body feeling tense, “Are you nervous?” He feels James nod against his shoulder. Reggie glances at him bouncing the baby and comes over after Harper nods in consent,

“Could you tell us why you’re nervous?” James buried his face into Harper’s shoulder, “Would it be alright if we made guesses?” James nods,

“Are you nervous being naked in front of other people?” Harper asks, but James shakes his head,

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

“Does it have something to do with other people touching you naked?” Reggie asks slowly, probably afraid of the answer,

“M-my boyfriend touched my, um,” Harper’s now nervous, his baby was dropping out of his Little headspace! He racks his brain for the most Little word for penis,

“Your peepee?” He ends up saying, which elicits a laugh from August who’d been listening in. James flushed as he nodded,

“Said no. He got angry, but never did anything like that again.” Harper rubs his back along with bouncing him, hoping to soothe the baby,

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••

“Oh baby, it’s alright if you don’t feel comfortable yet. If you want, you two can take separate baths.” August pipes up from the tub,

“It’s okay Jamie! We can do it when you’re comfortable!” James nods, sniffling a little when Harper realizes that he’s trying to hold back tears. He holds him tighter,

“That was a very hard thing to talk about baby, but I’m very proud that you were able to tell us.” James whimpers as he nods his head, tears and sobs then falling freely from the baby. Harper bounces him even when he was done, August’s bath ending awhile ago as the towel wrapped boy looks worriedly at James,

“Can we all sleep together later Uncle? I wanna cuddle Jamie.” Harper smiles, August was such a sweetheart,

“We’ll see how he feels after his bath, but thank you for offering August. You’re very sweet.” The boy flushes happily at the compliment, allowing for his Papa to lead him to their room to get changed. Harper sighs, why has the world hurt his baby so much?

“No touchie?” His baby asks as he’s lowered into a new bath, this time with a toy boat and squishy platypus,

“I won’t touch anywhere you’re uncomfortable.” Harper confirms, wanting his baby to feel safe,

“Trust Da’ie. Da’ie won’ let strangers touch?” His baby hums when he rubs in shampoo,

“Daddy promises to not let people you aren’t comfortable with touch you.” He picks up the platypus from inside the boat, filling it with water, “Look! Platypus wants to play with you!” He smiles when his baby squeals as the water stream hits his chest,

“Platy!” James gleefully grabs his companion and pops them into his mouth before spitting them out with a disgusted expression,

“The bubble solution is bitter, huh.” Harper laughs as the baby pouts at him,

“Want paci.”

August sat on his Uncles bed half an hour later as he watched Jamie get dried from his bath,

“Can I play with Jamie before we go to sleeps?” Uncle was in thought for a moment before nodding his head,

“Only for thirty minutes, then we’re all sleeping.” He nods ecstatically, running to the playpen to retrieve the LEGO Duplos with his Papa’s help,

“Jamie Jamie!” The baby slowly blinked at him from where he was sprawled out on the ground,

“Mm?” He plunks the box of blocks down besides them on the floor and began building a village,

“Jamie, could you build a cave for the dragons?” He placed two long block in front of Jamie as the dragons, who picked one up,

“‘Ragon.” He placed it on his head then proceeded to nom on the other one,

“You don’t chew on dragons Jamie.” August sighs, pulling it from his mouth and popping in Jamie’s baba instead, “Look,” he builds a hut, then smashes it with a shout. He smiles at Jamie and his joy falters when he saw the baby covering his ears and whimpering, “Is Jamie okay?”

“Don’ like loud noise.” August scoots closer and engulfs the baby in a hug,

“I’m sorry Jamie. All I’ve done is make you uncomfortable while I’ve been here.” He suddenly jumps up with Jamie in his arms, “I know! Stay here Jamie, imma go get something!” With that he runs out of the room.

Jamie could hear talking from the living room, then August was back with a wrapped gift. His Daddy and Uncle came back into the room as well as Cousin,

“August wanted to give you his present early, baby. He said he wanted to use it to apologize for making you uncomfortable.” Jamie cocks his head,

“Not his fault. He don’ know.” His Daddy was being funny, August has been nothing but nice to him! August smiled at his exclamation,

“You don’t blame me Jamie?” He shakes his head. The adults began placing blankets and pillows on the floor as August gave him the present to open, “I couldn’t find a box that would fit it properly, so i just wrapped it as is!”

August explained when Jamie squeaked when the present squished under his grip. He tore the wrapping paper, his heart leaping when he saw a pair of embroidered eyes. He hurriedly peeled back the rest of the paper, overjoyed to reveal a stuffed giraffe roll. He hugs the plushie, burying his face in it before remembering that he had to thank August, lunging him into a hug,

“Tank you.” August hugged back, grinning,

“You’re welcome Jamie.” He giggles when Jamie whined when Uncle attempted to pull him away from him, “Jamie loves me!” He states enthusiastically as everyone smiled at the cuteness of it all.

As they all lay together on the Nest that they constructed at Heather’s request. Jamie snuggles into the warmth around him and smiles at the new warmth blooming in his soul.


	9. Baby Shower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James gets his party at the park.

James mumbles around his paci when the rumbling stops and hes being unbuckled from his seat, why had the rumbling stopped? His Daddy smiles at him, picking him up,

“You fell asleep baby. Do you like the rumbling of the car?” He nods into his giraffe plushie with his Daddy looking at it too, “What are you going to name it?” James thinks as they made their way towards the wooden canopy,

“Maroon a girl.” Satisfied with his decision, he attempts to go back to sleep but is woken again when he’s strapped into a chair. He whines in complaint, he just wanted to sleep more!

“I know you’re upset baby, but it’s lunch time.” He continued to whine until a plate of deviled eggs was placed in front of him. His tummy growled, “Baby’s hungry?” He nods, picking up an egg and attempting to put the entire slice into his mouth, “Ah, you have to bite baby.”

He makes a sound of complaint and turns his head away when Daddy attempted to pull it out, that’s my egg Daddy! He hears a laugh and sees Cousin recording him,

“Go on Jamie! You almost got it!” He smiles then manages to shove the rest of it inside and began chewing with some difficulty, “Good job Jamie!” He contently revels in his success, chewing his egg throughly as his Daddy wipes around his mouth,

“You got yolk on your face baby.” He makes a sound in acknowledgement, picking up a second slice to do the same until Uncle plucked it out of his hand,

“Say ‘ahhh’ Jamie!” He pouts, he wanted to eat it his way! His tummy rumbled in protest, so he gave in eventually and bit the egg, “There’s a good boy!” He blushes happily. If he got praise for it then maybe it wasn’t all that bad.

He opens his mouth again and Uncle fed him the other half, petting his head with his clean hand. His Uncle feeds him food from the table until he turns his head away, “Full.” He’s then strapped out of the chair and carried by Daddy to a playground. Other Littles screaming and chatting on the swing sets and slides.

“What do you wanna do baby?” James spots a sandbox in the corner and points to it, he didn’t want to play with strangers, “The sandbox is one of Daddy’s favorites too.” James giggles when he’s placed onto the sand, immediately fisting up handfuls of it and placing it in a pile, “Alright baby, Daddy needs to go and decorate now.” His Daddy stands up to leave, Maroon with him,

He pouts until his Daddy places a kiss on his forehead, “I’ll make sure to get you to hang the star. I’ll also let you hold Maroon when I take you back, we don’t want her getting all sandy do we?” He shakes his head, Maroon likes to be clean! “Daddy promises that he’s not throwing her away either, okay? Daddy would never do that.” He nods and Daddy smiles and walks back to the wooden canopy. He happily plays on his own for a bit, making the sand pile gradually bigger.

“Hey Jamie,” Cousin comes over and sits next to him, recording again, “whatcha doing there, bud?”

“Mountain!” He states enthusiastically, about to stick his thumb into his mouth when Cousin pops in his paci and attaching it to his shirt with a clip. He suckles on it, wondering for a moment how they always knew when he needed it when he deems the mountain big enough.

“Fwag!” He sticks a leaf through a stick and shoves it into the top of the mountain, “Mountain have hat!” He claps his hands in delight, Cousin smiling at him,

“Did someone climb up there and place it?” James tilts his head, but I did that!

“Me!” James is confused, maybe Cousin didn’t like the flag? He reaches up to pluck it out when Cousin holds his hand,

“Oh, silly me! I forgot that you had done that Jamie!” He smiles, Cousin had just forgotten, “Let’s go back to your Daddy now.” He bounces excitedly at that, his Daddy! He babbles excitedly as they got closer to the canopy,

“There’s my baby boy!” He snuggles into his Daddy when he’s handed to him, “Did you have fun?” He nods, sucking on his paci, eyes growing wide when he’s handed the golden star, “I’m going to raise you up to put it on the ceiling baby, it’s gonna be really high.” James fidgets nervously, but nods, “Up you go,” he squeaks when he’s lifted up, but then realizes that it’s actually kinda pretty. He sees a hook and puts the loop on the star onto it. He smiles at it as he’s lowered back down,

“Star!” He’s happy that his star looks at home on the ceiling,

“Cake time?” August asks, clapping his hands in excitement,

“Not quite yet bud.” Uncle answered. James looks around, there was cake?

“No cake yet baby. But we could look at the duckies while we wait.” James tilts his head, smiling when he’s handed back Maroon,

“Duckie?” August squeals happily and tugs along Uncle to the side of the pond,

“Like your rubber duckies at home baby.” He giggles as his Daddy places him on his shoulders, his Daddy was a giant! He gasps when he spotted something fluffy bobbing on the water,

“A duckling Papa!” August exclaims, struggling against Uncle’s hold on him at the edge of the pond,

“August, you can’t jump into the pond to catch one.” August pouts, slumping into his arms. James rubbed his cheek against Daddy’s curls, he wonders if the baby duck felt like his hair. He also rubs his face against Maroon, maybe the duckies would feel like her?

“Touch duckie!” James exclaims to his Daddy, his curiosity peaked,

“We can’t do that baby.” James pouts,

“Why?” His Daddy and Uncle share a look and Cousin speaks up in the silence,

“If you take the baby ducks to play with them, they could be separated from their Mommies.” Both James and August gasp, that’s horrible!

“Okay Papa, I won’t get a duckling!” James nods in agreement, “We can still feed them though Papa?” Uncle smiles, nodding,

“As long as it’s something nutritious.” He hands August, Cousin, and his Daddy a bag full of peas,

“Here baby,” his Daddy places the bag on his head and James grabs onto it, holding onto Maroon with his arms now, “throw the peas into the water and the ducks will come closer.” James grabs a fistful and throws it into the pond, delighted at the ripples they created. Suddenly, tons of ducks flocked to the area, munching up the peas,

“Lotsa duckies!” James shrieks in joy, throwing more peas in and giggling when some peas bounced off the ducks. The duckies seemed to enjoy the peas, so James decided to stick some in his mouth as well. He sucked on them before spitting them out, not liking the way they smushed inside his mouth,

“Yucky.” He complains, dropping the bag of them on the ground. The ducks immediately began dragging it into the water, the rest of the peas flooding into the pond and turning the water green,

“Daddy doesn’t like peas either baby.” Daddy says to him, bending forward to pick up the bag, “Why don’t we have some cake now? Make the yucky taste go away.” James nods his head, cake sounded really good,

“Yay! Cake!” August whoops and runs off to the canopy making Uncle chase after him. Heather laughs at the scene,

“Bet you’re glad that your baby can’t run off like that.” His Daddy laughs,

“Just a little. I do love carrying him.” James feels his chest become warm at the admission,

“Da’ie strong!” He says, wanting to make his Daddy feel happy too. He’s happy when he sees Daddy smile at the compliment,

“Here’s Jamie’s slice!” August states proudly, “I cut it myself!” James makes grabby hands towards the slice as his Daddy situated him inside the high chair, placing Marron behind his head,

“Here you go baby.” As soon as his Daddy placed the slice in front of him, he grabs onto it with his hands and began munching away,

“Papa,” August whines, “why does Jamie get to use his hands to eat, but I can’t?” James tilts his head, now curious. He spies a spoon near his tray and makes grabby hands towards it,

“Just keep eating Jamie.” Uncle encourages and he went back to his cake slice, “Good boy.” He smiles happily at the praise as Uncle went back to talking with August,

“Since Jamie is mostly in the younger part of his age bracket, he doesn’t usually have the hand-to-eye coordination skills needed to use utensils. The only time he’s able to is when he is at the Littlespace of two or when he’s Big.” James was sucking on his hand, his fingers tasted yummy! However he grimaced when he felt grains of sand on his tongue. Daddy seems apologetic when he uses a wet wipe to clean up his hands and face,

“Sorry baby, Daddy forgot to wipe your hands before giving you cake.” James sticks his hand back into his mouth and immediately removes it, his hand tasted bitter!

“Jamie baba!” James accepts the rubber nipple being pressed against his mouth a bit upset that his yummy fingers were now gone,

“How about we open presents?” His Daddy didn’t need to ask him for that! He began wiggling around in excitement, hurry! His Daddy smiles as he unbuckles him from the seat and situates him on his lap; Maroon in James’ arms,

“Let’s open my present first!” Heather exclaims, placing their large present in front of him. James is surprised by how big it is, “Go on Jamie.” Heather encourages, scooting the box a bit closer. James began ripping up the colorful paper and opening the box with Daddy’s help,

“Wow! It’s a stroller!” James tilts his head, this didn’t look like a toy. He curls into his Daddy as he’s lifted back up. He’s confused when he’s lowered back down, but snuggles into the compartment that he was in; squishing Maroon’s face. He squeals when he began rolling forwards, it rumbles like the car!

He hears talking above him and reaches up to grab his Daddy’s face. His Daddy smiles and nudges his hand back inside before pulling something over the opening. Suddenly it’s dark,

“Da’ie?” He calls out, a little scared until soft lights glow above him. Greens, purples, and blues flickered inside the compartment. Something scary wouldn’t have pretty lights. He’s still relieved when the light came through again and his Daddy lifted him back into his arms,

“Papa’s present now!” August exclaims, pushing the last present in front of James when they all sat back down. He tore it open and was overjoyed to see many things that did look like toys. He spotted something colorful and grabs it, recognizing it as the fun spinny toy that the Officer had. He giggled when it began to spin when Daddy blew air into it. He had to look away when he got too dizzy though, turning away Maroon as well; she got dizzy too.

“Look Jamie!” August tore the rest of the paper and revealed a treasure chest, “For you to store your toys in!” He touches one of the shiny gems decorating the front, it looked like jelly! But it looked pretty where it was so he left it alone,

“Say ‘thank you for the gifts’ baby.” James nods,

“Tanks for pwesents!” He exclaims, picking up a different toy inside the chest that rattled when he shook it,

“Papa can I have more cake before we leave?” James stops rattling the toy,

“Weave?” Did August not wanna play with him anymore? He looks at his Daddy for answers, “August no like?” His Daddy places a kiss on his forehead before speaking,

“They have to leave since they have to go places like work and school. It’s not because they don’t like you.” James pouts, but nods,

“‘Kay.” August comes over and wraps him in a big hug,

“We’ll have lots of other playdates in the future! I promise!” James smiles at that, August wouldn’t break a promise. They play together with James’ new toys for a bit before he’s waving goodbye to them all as they went separate ways,

“Did you have fun at your party, baby?” James nods from Daddy’s side where he held onto his hand, his Daddy currently using the stroller to store his presents,

“Had lotsa fun.” He yawned as they reached the car, tired after the days events. He squishes his face into Maroon as he waited for his Daddy to finish with the trunk. He bumps into Daddy as he caught him from where he was tipping back and forth on his feet for fun,

“Whoa, be careful baby.” James rubs his eyes,

“Mm.” He was too sleepy to respond properly as is glad when he feels his Daddy buckle him into his car seat. Before he went back out however he pressed a kiss to his Daddy’s forehead, smiling sleepily at him, “Tank you Da’ie.” His Daddy smiles softly at him as he gave him a kiss back,

“You’re very welcome baby. I love you.”

“Wove you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all enjoyed this new chapter!


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